Israel's inexpensive, quick and flexible telecommunications solutions
provide countries and firms throughout the world with upgraded national and
local phone systems.
Israel has one of the highest rates of cellular telephone use in the world,
with nearly 20% of the country's residents owning mobile phones. In
supermarkets, at bus stops and on the beach Israel seems to be a nation
permanently on the phone.
Mobile phone use in Israel was pioneered by Pelephone, owned jointly by
Motorola and Bezeq, the country's government-owned telecom provider. But a
second company, Cellcom, not only made the field competitive in 1995 with
innovative digital technology, but, in a unique marketing strategy, offered
calls that were almost as cheap as regular phone calls.
Mobile phone use took off and the Israeli authorities have had to confront a
new reality. The police hand out stiff fines for speaking on hand-held
phones while driving, and the army has made mobile phone use for soldiers on
duty a serious disciplinary offence. Nevertheless, the benign ring of the
mobile phone is now a familiar sound in public places, and the granting of a
license to a third operator later this year is likely to increase mobile
phone use significantly.
Israel's conventional telephone network is also one of the world's most
sophisticated, with 100% digitilization and over 40 lines per 100 people.
Bezeq - the country's government-owned telecommunications corporation, which
has spearheaded these telecommunications advances in partnership with
leading-edge private enterprises also provides value-added data services,
such as electronic mail, Internet access and databases, and is developing
the country's information highway.
"Through our subsidiary Bezeq Globe," explains Bezeq spokesman Roni
Mandelbaum, "we have applied our experience in rapidly and effectively
upgrading national and regional telecommunications systems to other
countries around the world. We not only plan and install systems in other
countries, but are subsequently prepared to operate and maintain them."
Completed projects include the installation of a satellite station in
Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, which provides international communications, voice and
data to the former Soviet republic. Before the existence of the satellite,
all Kazakhstan's international communications had to be routed via Moscow.
The new station was brought into service in three months, and an Israeli
team remains on site to give advice on operation and maintenance. A similar
project is being implemented in neighboring Uzbekistan.
In Hungary, a joint venture of Bezeq and local partners is developing
telecommunications infrastructure in three regions in the south of the
country. All 108,000 lines will include digital switching and transmission
systems. In Poland, Bezeq, together with Israeli high-tech firm Elbit and
the Polish telecommunications company RP Telecom, is installing 81,000 lines
near Warsaw, while in India, Bezeq is setting up a cellular phone network in
three southern states. Motorola Israel is developing a cellular phone
network for Accra in Ghana.
In addition to specializing in basic infrastructure, Israeli companies have
also penetrated high-tech niche markets. ECI Telecom has developed systems
that can increase five-fold the capacity of digital satellite and
fiber-optic cable telecommunications links. The company's customers include
many of the major telecommunications firms in Europe and North America, and
have also sold well in China and elsewhere in Asia.
Many of Israel's largest telecommunications firms, such as Tadiran and
Telrad, have been instrumental in developing the country's own
infrastructure and are now implementing projects overseas. Tadiran
specializes in local wireless loops, while Telrad's small rural switch
systems have proven very popular in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet
Union. Telegate has sold its cable line technology throughout Latin America,
while Teledata exports access network solutions-to Eastern Europe.
"Israeli companies," says Mr. Mandelbaum, "provide relatively inexpensive,
quick and flexible telecommunication solutions using innovative methods, and
improvising according to local circumstances."